Familiarize Your Business with These UX Design Trends for 2022

It doesn’t matter if you sell sandwiches, pants, consultative services, or are a UI UX design company that focuses on mobile app design. All businesses in all industries need to stay on top of the trends.

Keeping up with industry-happenings means your finger remains on the pulse, so you won’t get blindsided by disruptions. More to the point, a firm grasp of the comings and goings of a vast, constantly transformative space like UX design keeps you ahead of the pack and ready to leverage the latest user and consumer behaviors.

As a UI UX design company specializing in mobile app design, we see how quickly technologies evolve and improve every day. In response, people are using their devices differently and in increasingly advanced ways.

For some added context, recent stats from TechCrunch show that consumers across the globe now spend 4.2 hours per day--on average-- using smartphone-based apps.

That stat alone tells you how today’s technological devices and available apps continually develop new ways to subtly mesh into all users’ lives. With people spending more time and providing more data to designers, the tech involved will keep adapting and becoming more all-encompassing throughout day-to-day comings and goings.

What does this all mean for your business? Well--keeping up with the latest UX trends for your apps means you’ll be there for the customer/user when they need you. Beyond that, you’ll be offering the experience they desire most.

Read on as this article delves into UX design trends that’ll keep your business ahead of the pack entering 2022:

Know That Mobile Comes First

Provided Google’s mobile-first index wasn’t the big tip-off, recent stats show that 60% of Americans choose their mobile devices as their primary way to surf the web.

There’s a reason that--as a company--we focus on mobile app design. It’s the wave of the present, and it’ll be the wave of the future heading into 2022. Users are permanently attached to their phones these days, more so than their laptops or desktops. As handheld devices advance in functionality, figuring more into human life, prioritizing a mobile-based user experience will remain your top UX priority.

It’s Time to Prioritize 3D Elements.

Getting licensed images or paying for photos, in general, can be a logistical nightmare, too expensive, or a combination of both.

The chances are, though, you want to give customers a good feel for your products and need something that provides a sense of realism on your app. Here’s where 3D elements shine and often drive sales.

Beyond the added realism, 3D elements also establish a modern aesthetic to your UI and UX. Given the sleekness of these elements, they blend well with a minimalistic web design approach, packing a punch without overwhelming users with visual stimuli.

It should be mentioned that 3D elements are nothing new and have been making waves for a while. However, there’s a caveat. They take a very long time to load--and that’s where you should expect things to truly evolve heading into 2022. Developers are working tirelessly to speed up loading times and vastly improve element quality.

Learn About the Nuances of Neomorphism

The subtle, innovative approach known as Neomorphism involves elements that protrude off the screen when users select an item. It also includes the following features:

• Shadows
• Blended contrasts
• Solid colors

While Geomorphism is the current UX philosophy used in most mobile app design, expect the neomorphic philosophy to make a splash in 2022.

Get Fluent in Interactive Animations

Here’s some food for thought:

Videos are shared 1,200% more often than images and texts combined. Likely, this drastic difference in shares results from the human brain processing visuals far quicker than text. To that point, around 9/10ths of the information your brain receives is visual, and the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Now, these statistics apply to videos--but a top-notch UI UX design company knows that you can’t have videos all over your mobile app design. Fortunately, interactive animations generate the same user-focused benefits as a video and often much more.

Plain and simple, most people respond better to visual storytelling and instructions without text, and interactive animations hone into that human trait. After all, unlike a video, people can directly engage with these animations.

Better yet, interactive animations are highly functional, going beyond entertainment and aesthetic appeal.

For instance, there’s a subgroup of animations known as micro-interaction. Examples are as follows:

● Animated refresh or loading pages

● Facebook reactions

● Emails swipe actions

● Internet speed tests

The idea of a micro-interaction is to be virtually invisible but simultaneously functional, essentially form-fitting to users’ behaviors. These particular interactive animated elements will continue to bloom in 2022.

Implement More Abstract Visualizations

In specific situations, graphs and tables are highly useful. Such as when you’re performing scholarly research.

However, the vast majority of your users aren’t engaging with your mobile app design to write research papers. Instead, they’re trying to engage with your business in a seamless, painless fashion. In other words, tables and graphs don’t really have a place in UI or UX heading into 2022. They are far too mundane and drab when it comes to presenting data.

Again, people don’t necessarily want to feel like they’re “doing work” on your app. Yet, incorporating data helps sell your products or services. So you need to find the happy medium that shows the information without scaring users off with unappealing, somewhat intimidating graphs and tables.

As such, 2022 will see designers rely more on data presentation that incorporates interactive elements and illustrations. Users’ eyes will then be drawn to the points you aim to make about the relevant subject material in far less time than without abstract data visualizations.

It’s also a chance to put your company’s own branded spin on its data instead of using overly generic graphs and tables.

Embrace Voice Searching Optimization

Here are a couple of recent statistics about voice search worth mulling over for any business focused on mobile app design:

● Nearly 60% of consumers find local businesses online with voice search.

● Throughout 2021, i’s projected that 122.7 million Americans will use voice search.

By now, everybody is familiar with Google Home, Alexa, and Siri. These voice assistants have won the hearts of millions--if not billions.

Take advantage of this growing trend with your UX and UI in your mobile app design next year. These voice assistants are becoming a regular fixture and staple in peoples’ lives (aka your target customer’s life). You need to figure out where you fit into this specific equation.

Voice commands are making it easier and more streamlined to obtain information and make purchases. Speaking to this notion is how 71% of users prefer voice search over a physical search.

With all this said, expect voice search optimization to be continually evolving in its functionality as a UX feature entering 2022.

Take a Trip to the Dark Side with Your Themes

There’s something so straightforward that many-a UI UX design company neglects, to this day, when executing mobile app design. This one simple yet frustrating oversight is the use of dark themes. Sure. It’s an approach that’s been around for ages. But so often, what’s old becomes new again.

When done the correct way, dark themes offer your mobile app design a unique, eye-catching look. They’re also versatile, available in several darker colors instead of merely black.

Another advantage of this approach? Dark themes cause less eye strain in low light conditions and during nighttime. Remember, UX also has to do with user comfort. And design that’s easier on the eyes is more comfortable than something causing strain.

Here’s one last perk of dark themes that will make them catch fire come 2022: they take up very little phone battery.

As we’ve discussed earlier, people are on their phones for 4.2 hours per day. That number will only grow as handheld mobile devices grow more ubiquitous. Anything you can do (e.g., enhancing battery efficiency) to better an experience that takes up such a vast chunk of a user’s life will offer a competitive edge.

Refresh Your Typography

Need to spruce things up with your mobile app design?

One of the best places to start is by refreshing your fonts. Don’t let the simplicity of that statement fool you. Landing on the correct fonts can be tricky when it comes to UX.

For instance, you don’t want something too flashy because it might overwhelm a user and damage their experience with your app.

But users are often captivated by and attracted to unique and visually-striking typographies. So, it’s about finding the correct balance.

Moreover, UX-oriented typography must play into the functionality and purpose of an app. Take an app catered towards industrial usage, for instance. A neater design would be more suitable than something more dramatic since the focus is on the information being displayed.

In closing, UX-friendly font designs will take the mobile app design world by storm in 2022, moving far away from the unengaging, drab typographies of the past.

Be Aware of the Wearable Tech Revolution

Come 2022, businesses must look beyond their mobile app design when contemplating UX.

Now, don’t get it wrong. A mobile-first approach remains your top priority. But that philosophy must work in harmony with other small gadgets that continually grow into staples of consumers’ lives.

Additionally, some experts believe wearable tech might even replace smartphones in the not-so-distance future. That said, we aren’t there yet.

Here’s a startling number that’ll give you an idea of the sustained growth of these gadgets: smartwatches alone comprise a $49 billion market. But smartwatches aren’t the only wearable tech devices changing the world as we know it. There are also wireless headphones, VR headsets, and more.

Given the relative recency of these wearable devices, the UX design has been lacking. Still, designers have been consistently aiming to fine-tune the kinks. As such, in 2022, expect improvements with gesture recognition, functionality, picture, graphics quality, and overall navigation in these pint-sized pieces of tech.

Conclusion: Stay On Top of Your Trends and Soar Higher Than Every Before

In a world moving faster than light speed, staying on top of the trends has never been more important.

Take the above notion one step further with UX design, which is partially responsible for the lightning-quickness at which day-to-day human life is currently developing.

Furthermore, your mobile app design is competing with a sea of industry rivals, many of whom keep their finger on the pulse. You need to stay one step ahead. But beyond that, you need to remain firmly ahead of your own business. Driving and striving for constant innovation with your UI and UX will make you more predictive in designing experiences that your target user wants and needs.

Therefore, after reading this blog, don’t sit around and wait for something to happen. Your competitors are out there pushing UX boundaries and setting trends themselves.

So, you need to gain your edge by contacting a company for UI UX freelance services. That way you’ll stay firmly ahead of the pack in 2022 with your mobile app design.